........It is 411 BC, the
twentieth year of the Peloponnesian War between the
rival Greek city states of Athens and Sparta. Weary of
the conflict, an Athens housewife, Lysistrata, invites
women from the warring regions to assemble at the
Acropolis in Athens for an urgent meeting. However, at
the designated time for the meeting, only Lysistrata
appears. Disappointed, she thinks that if the women
she summoned had been invited to a drinking party or a
festival honoring the goddess of love, Aphrodite, they
would be attending in great numbers. However, she is
heartened when her neighbor Cleonice arrives and tells
Lysistrata that the rest of the women will come,
eventually, after waking up their households, getting
breakfasts, washing or nursing children, and so on........When Cleonice asks the
purpose of the meeting, Lysistrata tells her it is of
utmost importance. In fact, it will mean the salvation
of Greece. Incredulous, Cleonice replies that women
are but delicate things–scented, slippered creatures
in see-through gowns meant to keep house and please
their husbands. But Lysistrata tells her that womanly
daintiness is the very thing that will bring about
salvation........Soon, others
arrive–from Acharnae, Anagyra, Sparta
(known as Lacedaemon), and
other locales–making excuses for their lateness.
Myrrhine, for example, says her arrival was delayed
because she had to hunt for her corset in the
darkness. Lampito, a rosy-cheeked Spartan yokel who
shows up with friends from Boeotia
and Corinth, inquires about
the reason for the meeting. Lysistrata replies with a
question: Are the women in the doldrums because their
husbands are away at war? They all affirm that they
are and that the days and weeks of separation have
grown into months........Cleonice says her
husband has been away five months in Thrace, and Myrrhine reports
that her husband has been absent seven months since
leaving for Pylos. Lampito
says her husband does visit occasionally but returns
to war just as quickly as he came. Lysistrata then
reveals her plan: The women shall refuse all marital
relations until Sparta and Athens make peace. The
women balk at first, refusing to participate........“I would walk through
fire–do anything else,” Cleonice says. “But to give up
the delights of the marriage bed is too much to ask.”.......However, after
Lysistrata makes a further appeal, Lampito accedes to
her wishes, noting that Menelaus readily threw down
his sword when he first beheld the beautiful Helen
(later known as Helen of Troy after she went off with
Trojan prince, Paris, an incident which sparked the
Trojan War). .......“What if they try to
take us by force?” Cleonice asks........“Then hold fast to the
door post,” Lysistrata replies........Eventually, all the
women agree to take part in Lysistrata’s scheme. As
part of the plan, elderly women lock themselves in the
Temple of Athena, inside the Parthenon on the summit
of the Acropolis, where the men keep their coffers of
treasure used to make war. The rest of the women swear
an oath, over a bowl of wine from which they drink, to
abide by the plan at all costs. They then bolt
themselves inside the Acropolis buildings........After hearing of the
women’s seizure of the sacred citadel, a group of old
men carry logs up to the Acropolis, throw them down,
and set fire to them as part of a strategy to smoke
and burn the women out. But no sooner do they light
the fire than the women arrive with pots of water,
dowse the flames, and drench the old men........When a magistrate
arrives, the old men complain that the women not only
put out the fire but also soaked them through and
through, making it appear as if they urinated on
themselves. The magistrate and his Scythian guards
bring in crowbars to open the doors, but Lysistrata
willingly comes out to confront them. When the
magistrate orders her hands tied, Lysistrata boldly
threatens the guard charged with the task. He is so
intimidated that he defecates. When the magistrate
summons a second officer to tie her, Cleonice
threatens to trample him, and he too is terror-struck
and defecates. Two other officers are called and they
too defecate in fear. As other officers come to the
fore, all the women gang up on them and beat them.
After an exchange of harsh words with the magistrate,
the women throw water on him........The women scold the
old men, saying housewives prepare sacrifices for the
gods, pay taxes, and have babies but that the old men
contribute nothing to the welfare of the state. The
two groups are ready to come to blows when Lysistrata
reports that many of the other women, yearning for the
touch of a man, are deserting. One sneaks out of
a gate, another lowers herself on a rope, and a third
is in the act of escaping on the back of a bird when
Lysistrata stops her. Others are attempting to escape
even as Lysistrata speaks. However, Lysistrata
persuades all of the women to remain after reporting a
prophecy predicting all will end well if the women
hold fast to their plan........Shortly thereafter,
Myrrhine’s husband, Cinesias, comes looking for her,
saying his passion for her must be gratified. But
Myrrhine refuses him. Only one thing, she says, will
make her yield to him: the end of the war. However,
after Cinesias pleads with her, even pledging to back
an end to war, she agrees to submit to him in a nearby
cave. But, she says, the floor of a cave is no fit
bed, so she fetches a cot. When she returns with it,
Cinesias is ready for her, but she says the cot must
have a mattress and she goes out to find one. Next,
it’s a pillow that she needs. After that, perfume. By
this time, Cinesias is ready to tear his hair
out. .......A herald then arrives
from Sparta on a mission of peace, saying the men
there are at their wit’s end and ready to make a
peace. Moments later, other envoys arrive from Sparta
and call for an immediate convocation........When Lysistrata
emerges from an Acropolis building, the old men greet
her as a daring heroine and urge her to act
immediately to effect a treaty. The goddess of peace
appears, deus ex machina; her beautiful body makes the
men yearn for peace and the pleasures of marriage.
Lysistrata launches into a reproachful speech. She
tells the warriors on both sides that they occupy the
same land and worship the same gods, yet they kill one
another indiscriminately and lay waste one another’s
cities–even as barbarians from other lands threaten
Greece. At times, they have fought on one another’s
sides........The men see the wisdom
of her words–and comment on the beauty of her
body. Peace is made, and the men and women
celebrate together.

Characters.Lysistrata
(acceptable pronunciatons: [1] liss uh STRAH tuh),
[2] lih SIS truh tuh, [3] ly SIS truh tuh)Athenian
housewife who organizes a strike in which Greek women
refuse to have sexual relations with their husbands.
Her name, loosely translated, means disarmer of
warriors, deliverer from war, advocate of peace,
and peacemaker.Cleonice Lysistrata's
friend
and the first woman to arrive for the meeting at which
Lysistrata announces the strike. Other
Supporters of Lysistrata.......Myrrhine.......Lampito.......Ismenia.......StratyllisMagistrate
Official who attempts to break up the strike.Scythian
Guards Officers who carry out the Magistrate's
orders.Cinesias Husband
of
Myrrhine.Child of
CinesiasChorus of
Old Men Chorus of
WomenGoddess of
Peace She appears near the end of the play, when
the men and women agree to a settlemen.Herald,
Envoys, Citizens

Setting

The action
takes place in Athens, Greece, during the twentieth
year of the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and
Sparta. All of the scenes take place on the
Acropolis–a citadel and shrine on a craggy,
limestone hill 500 feet above sea level–accessible
through a marble gateway (the Propylaea) at the
western end of a stone wall. The centerpiece of the
Acropolis was the Parthenon, a magnificent Doric
temple (constructed between 447 and 438 B.C.)
housing a gigantic ivory-and-gold statue of the
goddess Athena, to whom the Acropolis was dedicated.
Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war and the patron
deity of Athens, was honored in the temple as Athena
Parthenos (Athena the Virgin)–hence,
the name Parthenon for the building that
housed her statue. The Parthenon also contained the
treasury of the Delian League, an alliance of Greek
city states. Other religious shrines also graced the
hilltop. The characters in the play come from
various locales in Greece, a country in southeastern
Europe consisting of a mainland in the north and a
peninsula, the Peloponnesus, in the south. Following
is a glossary place names mentioned in Lysistrata:

Athens:
Greece ancient city-state in mainland GreeceAcharnae
(or Acharnes): suburb of AthensPeloponnesus
(or Peloponesos, Pelopónnisos Peloponnese,
Argos): Peninsula making up southern Greece. Sparta
(or Lacedaemon): the capital of the Laconia region
of southern Greece.Pylos:
city in southwestern Greece on the PeloponnesusBoeotia:
region northwest of Athens.Thebes:
city in Boeotia.Corinth:
city in northeastern Peloponnesus:Anagyra:
town on the island of CyprusThrace:
region in northeastern Greece and now part of
Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

Type of Play

Lysistrata is a stage play
classified as old comedy. Aristophanes
completed it in 411 B.C., during the
Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Two
years before, Athens suffered a demoralizing defeat
in Sicily.

What
Was Old Comedy?

In Greece of the Fifth Century,
B.C., old comedy was a genre of comedy that
displayed great imagination and used cutthroat
satire and caricature to ridicule public figures,
politics, ideas, trends, and institutions. Not
infrequently, the dialogue and the action
sequences rely on vulgarity to get laughs. For
example, in Lysistrata, guards
defecate in fear of angry women. A herald unable to
contain his libido is accused of hiding a lance
under his cloak. The following exchange between two
enemies, a woman and an old man, demonstrates the
coarseness of the humor in the play:

WOMAN.......Suppose I let fly a
good kick at you?OLD MAN......I should see your
thing then.WOMAN.......You would see that,
for all my age, it is very well plucked.

In the Fourth
Century, old comedy was succeeded by a lighter, less
caustic form of comedy that centered on fictional
characters drawn from everyday life rather than on
public figures, politics, and so on. This genre was
appropriately labeled new comedy.

Structure
of Old Comedy

Old comedy
usually contained the following structural elements
in a typical play:

Prologos:
Prologue that begins the play with dialogue
indicating the focus or theme of the play.Parodos
(pronunciation: PAIR uh doss): (1) Song sung by the
chorus when it enters; (2) the moment when the
chorus enters. Episode(s):
scene in which the dialogue involves one or two
characters and the chorus.Agon
(pronunciation: AG ohn): a debate between
characters. Parabasis
(puh RAB uh sis): an ode in which the chorus
addresses the audience to express opinions of the
author, including his views on politics, social
trends, and other topics. Stasimon(s)
(pronunciation: STASS uh monz): Scenes in which the
chorus sings a song, uninterrupted by dialogue.
Usually, other characters are not present.Exodos (EX
uh doss): Exit scene; final part of the play. In the
exodos in The Clouds, Strepsiades burns down
the thinking shop.

Purpose of the Play

When
Aristophanes staged Lysistrata, he wanted to
make people laugh. And he has been succeeding in
that goal for more than 2,400 years, for the play is
a masterly comedy that appeals to people of every
time and place. He also wanted to deliver a message
to theater audiences of fifth-century Athens: that
the war between Athens and Sparta was an exercise in
stupidity--a senseless waste of people and
resources. .

.Themes

(1) The
world is a better place when men spend more time
loving their wives than their weapons of war. (2)
The war between Athens and Sparta is a senseless
waste of lives, money, and energy. (3) War not only
divides nations; it also divides families. (4)
Although men hold all the power in Greek society,
they lack the wisdom, common sense and peaceful
nature of Greek women. (5) The weak can be strong
when their cause is just. (6) In unity, there is
strength.

Climax

The climax
occurs when the men sue for peace, the goddess of
peace appears, and Lysistrata makes a speech.

Universality

Although
Aristophanes focuses his plays on specific people,
ideas, and events of his time and place, his themes
appeal to audiences of every age and ever country.
In other words, the plays have universal appeal. For
example, in 2003, as part of a worldwide protest
against the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq, sixty
countries staged more than a thousand performances
of Lysistrata to point up the folly of war.Another
play of Aristophanes, The Clouds, remains
popular today because it exposes public figures who
rely on specious reasoning to promote their agendas
and gain followers.

Stichomythia

Stichomythia
(stik uh MITH e uh) consists of brief, alternating
lines of dialogue spoken in rapid-fire succession.
It occurs frequently in Greek drama, especially when
characters are arguing or expressing strong
emotions. Following is an example of stichomythia in
Lysistrata. The leader of the men's chorus
and the leader of the women's chorus are threatening
each other.

LEADER OF
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
Silence! or my stick will cut short your days.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
Now, just you dare to touch Stratyllis with the tip
of yourfinger!
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
And if I batter you to pieces with my fists, what
will you do?
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
I will tear out your lungs and entrails with my
teeth.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
Oh! what a clever poet is Euripides! how well he
says that womanis the most
shameless of animals.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
Let's pick up our water-jars again, Rhodippe.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
You damned women, what do you mean to do here with
your water?
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
And you, old death-in-life, with your fire? Is it to
cremateyourself?
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
I am going to build you a pyre to roast your female
friends upon. LEADER
OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
And I,-I am going to put out your fire.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
You put out my fire-you?
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
Yes, you shall soon see.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
I don't know what prevents me from roasting you with
this torch.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
I am getting you a bath ready to clean off the
filth.
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
A bath for me, you dirty slut?
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
Yes, indeed, a nuptial bath-tee heel
LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN (turning to his
followers)
Do you hear that? What insolence!
LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
I am a free woman, I tell you.

.

.

Study
Questions and Essay Topics

What
were the causes of the Peloponnesian War?

Many
Greek plays–including Lysistrata, Antigone,
and Medea–focus
on women. What was the role of women in Greek
society at the time Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata?
Could they vote? Could they hold jobs? Could they
act on a public stage? Were they likely to conduct
a protest, as in Lysistrata, to present
their views?

In Lysistrata, Aristophanes
was calling attention to the folly of a war
between Athens and Sparta in the Fifth Century,
B.C. Does the message of the play apply to wars
of later centuries, including the 21st? Does it
also apply to bellicose relationships in
everyday living? What would be the position of
Aristophanes on the U.S. Civil War, World War
II, and the second Iraq War?

Aristophanes
was the master of old comedy (see Type
of Work, above), a popular genre in the
Fifth Century, B.C. Old comedy was succeeded in
the Fourth Century, B.C., by a gentler type of
comedy called new comedy. Its master was Menander.
Write an essay that compares and contrasts old
comedy and new comedy.